Advance registration for next week's World Series of Poker Circuit visit to Toronto, a brand new destination, has locals ready to tolerate hours-long waits in line for a chance to play. Though its being held at a sizeable venue, Toronto's Great Canadian Casino, the upcoming WSOP Circuit Toronto stop is still working plans to provide seating for as many players as possible, even if in the end some players might be turned away... or if considering on traveling there from afar, might end up opting for more-assured playing options.
In a lot of ways, it's a good problem to have. The WSOP and Great Canadian are assured of having a packed house virtually every day of the upcoming 11-day stop, which begins on March 22 and will offer eight official Circuit ring events.
News of the long registration lines way in advance of the event emerged on Twitter/X via a Toronto player, "Christine_DivaC", who snapped a photo of the "World Series of Patience" and shared it online last week:
Christina's post quickly made the rounds, including a mention in the most recent edition of PokerOrg Editor-in-Chief Brad Willis's popular TheOrg newsletter. Christina herself was pleased to be mentioned in the newsletter, it turned out, and now her poker-viral Tweet and follow-up are displayed in a PokerOrg front-end feature as well:
405-entry cap spurs early registration rush
The reason for the early surge is that each event of the Circuit stop, or for each starting flight for events having multiple starting days, was originally limited to a hard cap of 405 entrants, or 45 nine-player tables full of participants. That's since been modified to allow for more seating. According to the structure sheets currently available on Great Canadian's portal for the series, each event or starting flight will begin with that 405-entry cap, but unlimited re-entries will be allowed. Alternates will also be allowed to register for each event or starting flight and will be seated as players are busted from a given event. Re-entry and alternate seating will remain available until late-registration closes for each event or starting flight.
Of course, since busting out early means heading to the end of the line to re-register, many of the events at WSOP-C Toronto are likely to have a mini-"Colossus" feel to them in terms of the waiting, as Christina and other Toronto players have already discovered.
One benefit for local players, should they choose to view it that way, is that many Circuit regulars might bypass the Toronto stop from fear of being locked out of events. After all, losing a few dozen of poker's very best players can't help but make the fields incrementally softer. Shaun Deeb, for example, used the expected crush in Toronto as a way to market a rival series at New York's Turning Stone, which he describes as his "original home casino":
'Infinite capacity' not possible
PokerOrg reached out to WSOP Vice President Gregory Chochon last week for more info on the early-registration situation. "Thrilled at the buzz around WSOP-C in Toronto," Chochon confirmed, while acknowledging, "Transparency is important to poker players and no tournament can have infinite capacity.
"With a cap [and] alternates, the goal is to have everything run smoothly for the inaugural run while still being one of the biggest tournaments of the year. It’s going to be a huge one and many ring events to play but if you want to play the Main Event best to lock up your seat early. The experienced Great Canadian Toronto team is currently working on the re-entries plans and should get announced soon." Those planse, including re-entries and alternates, are now in place.
Great Canadian opened early registration on last week for both in-person and online registration. Information on that advance registration is available on GCC's WSOP-C Toronto portal as well.
